Up to now, most all of electronic personal information management (PIM) systems are localized personal information management systems, in which individuals or users of the systems enter the personal data of their own and of their friends or contacts. Such systems are provided in individual electronic apparatus, such as personal computers, palm top computers, or any other kinds of electronic organizers, most using Microsoft Outlook, Lotus, or other address books. However, some of those electronic apparatus may not be easily carried around, some may not be kept handy, and some may not be updated often although certain synchronization software are available. Thus, it indeed causes inconsistency of data stored in various personal electronic apparatus a person may have.
Therefore, several web-based personal information management systems have been established to provide the remote storage and database of personal information, that are accessible through a network, such as addresses, calendars, and contacts. Such systems are, for instance, www.ecode.com, www.planetall.com, and www.backup.com. The eCode provides the personal information in electronic card format. Further, there are many existing online telephone directory services in various formats, such as “yellow pages” or “white pages.” With the establishment of remote storage and databases of personal information management, the accompanying technology of accessing such databases has been gradually developed. For instance, the Contact Networks, Inc. has several pending patent applications, e.g., WO 00/67105, WO 00/67106, WO 00/67108, WO 00/67416.
WO 00/67105 discloses a method and apparatus for publishing and synchronizing selected user information over a network. It describes a kind of virtual personal information cards that may be communicated to various receiving users under the control of the publishing user. When the publishing user changes the personal information, such changes will be propagated to all holders of the publishing user's card. However, it dose not teach how the card search is conducted more efficiently, and how such a system can be adopted for various users of different languages. Nor it teaches a concept of global network of personal and business web card systems.
In almost all of such remote PIM database systems, each entry of such names, telephones, and sometimes addresses can be searched using exact matching words, such as names and telephone numbers, etc. If the entered inquiry cannot exactly match the entry of information, several closest possible entries may be provided for selection. However, quite often the search may end up with a result of “no matching entry.” Thus, the searcher may have to modify the inquiry again and again. Finally, the searcher might give up because of frustration of repeatedly modification of inquiries when no result can be generated through several attempts. This is because most of the time the searcher lacks accurate description of the person being searched, for instance, lacking of correct spelling of the words or exact matching characters to get the correct result, not just some phonetic equivalent words or characters. The problem for such search is the requirement of completely or exact “matching” of the search words with the words of entry or entries. No matching, no result.
In case of searching somebody with whom you do not have any contact for quite a while or someone you just ran into once or twice, you probably do not have much information about him or her. You could hardly remember his or her name. Or sometimes, you lost your collection of business cards or databank or simply you do not have such information handy. Nonetheless, you do know something about him or her, such as where he or she studied, lived or worked before, his or her nickname, or what his or her hobby was etc. In any event, you do have a desire or necessity to find him or her for whatever reason is, but do not have accurate contact information. Using the aforesaid traditional search method searching a particular network or website, you will probably get nothing, or may have to try tens or hundreds of times before you finally get the information you want. In the real life, no-body would like to try too many times to get a simple search result. Therefore, how we could intelligently find someone's information without too much trouble has become a problem waiting to be solved.
Nowadays, Internet accessible electronic information management apparatus are widely used and becoming more and more popular, such as mobile phones, pagers, notebook computers, palm top computers, or any kind of personal computers or data apparatus. You may find an access to such instruments anywhere, such as offices, schools, homes, stores, libraries, or other public facilities. If you are traveling or just away from your own home or office where you usually keep your personal information files or cards, you might think of using the Internet to get what you want. If there were a reliable service on the Internet providing a readily available and accurately accessible database for all of individuals, anyone could then get the contact information of someone wanted from anywhere.
At present, the world is getting closer and closer. Perhaps, someone you want to find may be located or relocated in a different geographic location from yours. Maybe the person, whom you ran into, is in a different country, and speaks a different language. Therefore, there is a necessity to create a network or a global network of systems of personal and business information management, such that anyone may search through the global network of web cards to find the desired information.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to create a network of systems on the Internet that provides a service of personal information search, through which any Internet user may obtain a piece of desired information of someone from anywhere.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a global network of personal and business web card systems that contain necessary information of individuals of different geographic locations and different cultural backgrounds in different languages.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a network of database systems that can be quickly and effectively searched using native languages.